65th IHC Booklet/Program (pdf - 4.9MB) - Office of the Federal ...

NPP Microwave-sounder Based Tropical Cyclone Products
Andrea Schumacher 1 , Mark DeMaria 2 , John A. Knaff 2 , Limin Zhao 3 , Tom Schott 4
(schumacher@cira.colostate.edu)
1 Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Fort Collins, CO;
2 NOAA/NESDIS/STAR, Fort Collins, CO; 3 NOAA/NESDIS/OSPO/SPSD, Camp Springs, MD;
4 NOAA/NESDIS/OSD, Suitland, MD
NESDIS provides several Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU)-based operational
tropical cyclone (TC) intensity and structure guidance products. Using temperature retrievals
corrected for scattering and attenuation a number of tropical cyclone products are generated.
These products include storm-centered radius vs. pressure profiles of temperature and gradient
winds, objective estimates of 1-min maximum sustained surface winds, minimum sea level
pressure, the radii of 34-, 50-, and 64-kt winds in the northeast, southeast, southwest, and
northwest quadrants, and balanced horizontal winds on standard pressure levels from 1000 hPa
to 100 hPa within 600 km of tropical cyclones. Product algorithms use statistical methods to
remove temperature biases due to scattering and attenuation, and by using NCEP boundary
conditions and hydrostatic balance heights fields can be estimated. Statistical analysis is then
used to estimate intensity and wind radii from storm-centered azimuthally averaged fields and
gradient wind estimates. The 2-dimensional winds are estimated on standard pressure levels by
solving the non-linear balance equations.
With the launch of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System
(NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite, data from a new microwave sensor, the Advanced
Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) which has ~35% smaller footprint than AMSU, will
be available. This presentation will discuss the procedure and timeline for updating the AMSUbased
TC intensity and structure products to use ATMS data and the potential product quality
improvements that may result from the updates.
DISCLAIMER: The views, opinions, and findings in this report are those of the authors and
should not be construed as an official NOAA and/or U.S. Government position, policy, or
decision
Session 4 – Page 2